ALAMOSA, Colo. – One night after being dealt just their fourth loss of the season, the #10/19 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team looked to rebound Saturday night in front of a near capacity crowd at Plachy Hall against Adams State, and rebound they did in a major way. The Orediggers (19-4, 13-2) scored first and never looked back, riding a hot-shooting night from the field and the free throw line to post their first 100-point outing of the season, knocking off the Grizzlies (6-14, 4-10) by a final score of 117-84.
 
Riley Schroeder scored the first points of night as Mines raced out to a quick 8-2 lead thanks to three-pointers from Majok Deng and Cade Mankle. Adams State worked to stay within striking distance as Isaiah Sampson and Kaleb Mitchel each had a field goal before Destan Williams flushed a three of his own to make it 12-9 at 16:54. Following a layup by Adam Krasovec, Austin Fadal and Williams went back-to-back to make it a one-point game at 14-13, but it didn't stay close for long as an 8-0 run led by four points from Reagan Koch made it 22-13 with just over 12 minutes to play.
 
A layup from Deng pushed the advantage to double-digits for the first time less than a minute later and the Orediggers continued to stretch the lead out. A trey and two free throws from Deng made it 30-17 were the opening stages of another long run, this time of the 13-2 variety that included four from Riley Schroeder and two each from Krasovec and Sam Beskind that made it 38-17 with 7:35 in the half.
 
The strong start for Mines showed no signs of relenting as the half wore on, as Krasovec made it 40-19 with two from the line and after a layup from Courtney White, he assisted on a three from Beskind that made it 43-21 with just over six minutes before the break. Schroeder took over from there, starting with a turnaround jumper in the lane and going 6-6 from the line over the final minutes of the half while Koch, Beskind, Deng and Markus Pastorcic-Straun all contributed as the Orediggers almost matched their scoring output from Friday night in Durango in the first half, taking a 61-33 lead to the locker room.
 
Alex Romack scored the first four of the second half for the Orediggers as the offense continued to convert at a high rate with Mankle making it a 30-point game for the first time with a mid-range jumper at 17:28 as the score moved to 72-41. It didn't take long to hit 80 as Koch's second chance layup with just over 16 minutes to play made it 80-41 to cap a 12-0 run. A dunk by Schroeder at 14:28 pushed the lead to 40 at 85-45 as Mines continued to find the bottom of the basket more often than not.
 
The second half for Adams State to their credit was much improved from the first as they shot 70.4% from the field over the final 20 minutes, but the efforts of Kolby Walker, Kaleb Mitchell, Alex Hurr and Destan Williams did little to erase such a monumental deficit. Krasovec scored six in a row for Mines to clear the 100-point mark with under 10 minutes to play before checking out for the night as both sides emptied their benches to play out the stretch. Dom Girish gave Mines their biggest lead of the night with his first career three-pointer at 8:09 to make it 107-61, while Caleb Clark and Taylor Spurlock each penciled their names into the scoring column in the closing minutes as the Orediggers' lead remained north of 40 until the final 94 seconds, as Adams State ended the game on a 12-0 run but did little to affect the outcome as the buzzer sounded on a 117-84 win for the Silver & Blue.
                                       
NOTABLES
-Deng led five in double-digits with 23 points, going 6-10 from the floor, 2-4 from deep and 9-9 at the free throw line with two rebounds and two assists
-Schroeder erupted for 21 off the bench, shooting 7-10 in the game and dishing out three assists while adding two rebounds
-Krasovec added 15 off the bench, doing so on 6-7 shooting and 3-3 from the line with three assists and two rebounds of his own
-Koch chipped in 14 on 5-7 shooting including 2-3 from downtown with a 2-2 night at the charity stripe while plucking down five boards
-Romack finished the night with 12 points on 4-6 shooting and 4-6 from the line with five rebounds as well
-Beskind stuffed the stat sheet once more, scoring nine, rebounding six and dishing out five
-All 15 players who dressed for the game saw at least three minutes of action and 12 different players found the scoring column
-45 points in the game from Mines came from players off the bench while 50 points came in the paint and 29 came off of 16 Adams State turnovers
-The Orediggers shot 39-62 (62.9%) for the game and 31-33 (93.9%) at the free throw line, setting season highs in field goals made, free throws made, free throw attempts and steals (10)
-Mines limited ASU to just 4-18 (22.2%) from three-point land in the game
-The 61-point first half is the most points scored in a half by the Orediggers since they scored 62 in the second half in a come-from-behind 95-87 win at home against Chadron State on January 25, 2020
-Mines shot an eye-watering 20-29 (69%) from the floor in the first half and went 17-18 (94.4%) from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes
-The 117 points scored in the game are the most since a 121-point performance against Diné College back on November 26 in 2016
-Head coach Pryor Orser remains at 440 career wins and is now just two wins away from breaking another RMAC record, this time for all-time head coaching wins as he once again chases down legendary Fort Lewis and Western Colorado boss Bob Hofman's mark of 441
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers return to Lockridge Arena next weekend to host the South Dakota schools as Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines make the returns trips to Golden on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night against BHSU will be the annual "Rock The Lock" event featuring giveaways, prizes, free food and more on an even full fun and excitement.

Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on X and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.